


Touch

by kornevable



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-25
Updated: 2018-03-25
Packaged: 2019-04-07 23:31:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14092110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kornevable/pseuds/kornevable
Summary: "It's kind of silly, because there is no way that his brain forgot what they managed to accomplish, but knowing it and feeling it are two separate things, and Ed much prefers feeling it." / post-manga.





	Touch

**Author's Note:**

> Helloo
> 
> I just kind of dived into FMA _again_ , so have a small drabble to free my feels.

 

No thought is put into the gesture, really; it just comes, guides his hand and makes him feel what he couldn't for six years. His right hand touches the smooth skin they were so desperately trying to recover, and whenever he knows that it's real, he breathes out, tension all but vanished from his body. It's kind of silly, because there is no way that his brain forgot what they managed to accomplish, but knowing it and feeling it are two separate things, and Ed much prefers feeling it.

Al always smiles at him, and never comments on it.

It can go from the most random moments to more helpful gestures, like grabbing his shoulder when he speaks to him, bumping into his side when they're sitting together, or holding his arm to help him up the stairs. Really, any opportunities is good to simply bask in his brother's warmth and the knowledge that he is whole. Ed doesn't think he will stop being amazed by this any time soon, if ever—after so many years of dreaming, he believes he deserves the luxury of being happy at the sight of his brother.

Sometimes it's Al who initiates a gesture, and he would hold on longer. He clutches Ed's shirt when the market gets too crowded, he holds his hand when he wants to show him something, he pokes him every so often to catch his attention. They're both doing it and neither talks about it; it has become a sort of understanding, because this is what it is—an understanding of what it's like to rediscover sensations they've lost, of the reassurance it brings them. The other inhabitants of Resembool can't really wrap their heads around the idea of the Elric brothers being so openly physical when they were quite reserved as children, but it's not like Ed expects them to understand. He doesn't even recognize half the people he grew up with, he'd be foolish to explain to them what all this means.

The best way to tell the extent of their happiness is to recount the day Al stubbed his toe against the doorframe and, instead of hissing or swearing at the pain, he let out a simple _oh_ , and proceeded to grin and laugh and joke and tell Ed that he stubbed his toe with the brightest sparkle in his eyes. And of course Ed followed his brother in his laughing, both saying that they were stupid but in their minds they were rejoicing at the first casual pain Al experienced.

Al occasionally glances at Ed's left leg and he doesn't even need to utter anything for Ed to reach his nose and pinch it between two fingers. Al loudly complains but Ed scolds him even louder, not wanting to hear whatever argument Al has prepared. Keeping one limb made of metal is worth everything if he can see his brother's smile, alright? Al understands, but he still has that look on his face. Ed wrestles him on the ground until he cracks a smile.

Ed watches as Al relearns how to swim, how to run, how to smell, how to accept the wind's embrace on his face. He watches and ruffles his hair, because that's something he's always done, as a kid, as a teenager, and he will continue to do so, even when they are eighty, since he's a big brother and big brothers do whatever they want, right? (And this time his right hand will find the softness of Al's hair)

 


End file.
